Batten Kill Management to Focus on Habitat

After a public outcry against the idea of stocking sterile trout in the Batten Kill, it looks like the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife is dropping the idea.

In a press release, the department says the new six-year Batten Kill Trout Management Plan calls for an emphasis on habitat restoration and managing wild trout populations without stocking.

The nationally known river has seen a decline in habitat quality for brown trout in particular. Last June the department wrote a draft management plan that called for habitat improvement and limited stocking of sterile trout as a "put-and-take" fishing opportunity.

But the public overwhelmingly rejected the stocking idea while supporting the habitat restoration plans. The final management plan approved by Fish & Wildlife Commissioner Wayne Laroche dropped the stocking plan during the six-year plan.

"Over the past half dozen years, the department and other agencies have conducted numerous studies to identify likely causes for the reduced abundance of wild brown in the Batten Kill," said department fisheries biologist, Ken Cox in a news release. "Results from these investigations point to habitat deficiencies that have been in the making for many years and more recently reached a critical tipping point."

Studies show the river habitat quality, water temperature, refuge habitat and other physical changes in the river have reduced the Batten Kill's capacity to maintain the quantitites of fish the river once supported, according to the release. Efforts to restore trout cover habitat began last year and will continue.

"Habitat restoration will be directed at making in-stream improvements, reforesting stream banks, reducing erosion, restoring overall river channel and riparian functions, and informing the public of the importance of wise river corridor stewardship to habitat and trout," Cox said. "In order to be successful, this effort must be long term and involve the combined energies and resources of stakeholders and interest groups."

The plan will keep the river under a no-kill regulation from the base of Dufresne Pond dam in Manchester downstream to the New York state line. All trout caught must be immediately released.

The plan also recommends the closure of two important spawning tributaries -- the Green River in Arlington and Sandgate, and the Roaring Branch in Arlington and Sunderland -- from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31.

The new regulations will go into effect April 14

The Batten Kill Trout Management Plan can be found on the Fish & Wildlife Department's Web site at: www.vtfishandwildlife.com.